Legendary high school basketball coach Morgan Wootten, who transformed DeMatha High School into a powerhouse, died on Tuesday. He was 88.
"The Wootten Family is saddened to share the news that their loving husband and father Morgan Wootten passed away yesterday evening at 9:50pm," DeMatha High School announced on their Twitter account early Wednesday morning. "Morgan was surrounded by his family in prayer and passed away peacefully as he wished."
Wootten's coaching career was spread across six decades from 1956 until his retirement in 2002. The legendary coach put together a 1,274-192 record and retired as the winningest high school coach in history. Wootten never had a losing season at DeMatha and won at least 30 games in 10 different seasons.
DeMatha is a prep school in Maryland that produced several NBA players during Wootten's long tenure, including Adrian Dantley, Sidney Lowe, Danny Ferry, and Mike Brey. Many of Wootten's former players ventured into the coaching ranks themselves, such as Brey at Notre Dame and Lowe at North Carolina State.
In 2000, Wootten was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. At his induction, the coach was introduced by Hall of Fame Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach.
"Morgan Wootten had it all," Auerbach said at the induction ceremony, according to the Associated Press. "He loved the game, he loved the kids, he was a teacher. He's always in command, without being loud or brash."
One of Wootten's biggest coaching accomplishments came in 1965 when DeMatha took on Power Memorial in front of a sellout crowd at Cole Field House, which is on the campus of the University of Maryland. Power Memorial was on a 71-game winning streak coming in and were led by future UCLA and NBA superstar Lew Alcindor.
The Stags ended up defeating Power Memorial 46-43 and limited Alcindor to just 16 points. In order to prepare for the game, Wootten had his defenders hold up tennis rackets to simulate Alcindor's daunting 7-foot-2 frame.
"I fell in love with coaching," Wootten once said of his profession, according to the AP. "I loved interacting with young people, having the opportunity to make a tremendous impression on them."
Wootten led DeMatha to a 22-10 record in his first season and they were the top-ranked team in the Washington D.C. area just two years later.
Due to his success over the years, Wootten had plenty of job offers from the collegiate ranks, including Georgetown and North Carolina State. Wootten was also considered when the Maryland job became available after Lefty Driesell was fired in the wake of the death of Len Bias.
